The Node Plugin contains generators and executors to manage Node applications within an Nx workspace. It provides:
Setting Up @nx/node
Installation
Make sure to install the @nx/node version that matches the version of nx in your repository. If the version numbers get out of sync, you can encounter some difficult to debug errors. You can fix Nx version mismatches with this recipe.
In any Nx workspace, you can install @nx/node by running the following command:
❯
nx add @nx/node
This will install the correct version of @nx/node.
Using the @nx/node Plugin
Creating Applications
You can add a new application with the following:
❯
nx g @nx/node:application apps/my-new-app
You can run your application with nx serve my-new-app, which starts it in watch mode.
Creating Libraries
Node libraries are a good way to separate features within your organization. To create a Node library run the following command:
❯
nx g @nx/node:lib libs/my-new-lib
❯
# If you want the library to be buildable or publishable to npm
❯
nx g @nx/node:lib libs/my-new-lib --buildable
❯
nx g @nx/node:lib libs/my-new-lib \
❯
--publishable \
❯
--importPath=@myorg/my-new-lib
Using Node
Testing Projects
You can run unit tests with:
❯
nx test my-new-app
❯
nx test my-new-lib
Replace my-new-app with the name or your project. This command works for both applications and libraries.
Building Projects
Node applications can be build with:
❯
nx build my-new-app
And if you generated a library with --buildable, then you can build a library as well:
❯
nx build my-new-lib
The output is in the dist folder. You can customize the output folder by setting outputPath in the project's project.json file.
Application Proxies
Generating Node applications has an option to configure other projects in the workspace to proxy API requests. This can be done by passing the --frontendProject with the project name you wish to enable proxy support for.
❯
nx g @nx/node:application apps/my-new-app \
❯
--frontendProject my-react-app
Debugging
Debugging is set to use a random port that is available on the system. The port can be changed by setting the port option in the serve target in the project.json. Or by running the serve command with --port <number>.
For additional information on how to debug Node applications, see the Node.js debugging getting started guide.